Rep. Tom Kean Jr. returned to the House floor on Tuesday, June 30, and said a diagnosis of depression led to an extended hospitalization that accounted for his monthslong absence from Congress.
Kean said the diagnosis came after medical testing and that he did not know at the outset how long he would be hospitalized, and that his doctors recommended he remain in the hospital for treatment. “When I said I hoped to return in a matter of weeks, I believed it,” he said. “Those were the best estimates the doctors could provide, but as the over 48 million of my fellow Americans being treated for this illness have come to discover, there is no timeline for healing, there is no timeline for recovery — only the work of getting better one day at a time.”
Kean last voted in the House on March 5 and missed more than 140 votes while he was away, a gap that complicated efforts by House Republicans to move key legislation in a chamber where every vote has been precious.
Kean, 57, is running for a third term in a competitive district that includes President Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf club and will face Democrat Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot and health care executive, in November. He won the June 2 primary unopposed, has been largely absent from the campaign trail for months and had a fundraiser scheduled for later Tuesday.
Kean first addressed his absence in an April 27 statement saying, “My doctors continue to assure me that my recovery will be complete and that I will be back to the job I love very soon.” On June 2 his campaign said he would transition from virtual work to in-person work within a matter of weeks and promised to be “completely transparent as to the nature of my medical condition” at that time. His office continued to post in the first person on social media, and Kean introduced legislation and digitally signed congressional financial disclosure documents with electronic signatures dated March 18, April 13 and May 22.
Speaker Mike Johnson said he spoke with Kean by phone on April 24 and that Kean was “attending to a personal health matter and expects to be back to 100% very soon.” Johnson later said Kean “sounded good and optimistic” and that he would honor Kean’s request to keep the specifics private, adding, “When he explains it, it will all make sense.” Speaking shortly before Kean addressed the House Tuesday, Johnson chided him for his secrecy: “If it were me, I would have been more specific about that, and I encouraged him to be.” Johnson also predicted Kean “gets elected easily this fall.”
Other House Republicans from New Jersey said they had been largely in the dark about Kean’s condition. Reps. Jeff Van Drew and Chris Smith said in April that they had tried reaching out and had not heard back — Van Drew described it as “radio silence” — and local party leaders in Kean’s district were similarly left out of the loop, fueling speculation that the party might need a late replacement.
Laura Ali, the Republican chair of Morris County, which overlaps Kean’s district, told reporters earlier this month that Republicans who “would want to be” considered to replace Kean “have made their intentions quite clear,” and said, “Yeah, I am nervous — of course I am, because it’s a very unsettling situation.”
Kean’s father, former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean Sr., said on May 15 that his son’s illness was “serious” but temporary, that he was under the care of a doctor away from home and that “he’ll be out in two or three weeks.” He added, “This won’t linger. It’s not some kind of disease that’s going to incapacitate him in the future.”
A week before his return to the Capitol, Kean answered the door at his New Jersey home when a reporter knocked, wearing a suit and tie, but declined to give details about his absence.
Kean won reelection against Democrat Sue Altman by five points in 2024, and political handicappers view his seat as a targeted contest this year; the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter rates the seat as leaning toward Republicans and has not changed its rating since November. Kean’s prolonged absence has handed the early summer campaign playing field to Bennett and drawn sustained attention because of the narrow 218-212 Republican majority in the House, and President Trump has endorsed Kean’s reelection without mentioning the absence.